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I have asked this before. In the face of all that’s going on, with so much open hatred of Jews everywhere, how am I supposed to believe that Hashem loves us and wants us to live? Why must so many Jews suffer if Hashem loves us? There are still Holocaust survivors alive – why does Hashem punish them with new hatred, when the old wounds are still so painful?
Your eyes only see the physical not the spiritual
Most people are gilgulim that need some sort of tikkun
Rav Shimon alster Z”TL said a few years ago at a gathering near his father’s burial site, if one were to live three hundred years, the world’s happenings would be like a beautiful tapestry,
We don’t live forever so we don’t have the answers.
The maharsha before he was niftar told his community that he would implore the kisai Hakavod to end the suffering of his kehila. After he was niftar he came in a dream to one of the community leaders and said the following, over here there’s no questions, everything makes sense, I now understand why what happens, happens but you who don’t can still daven.Ps. now that much of our history is well documented and easily accessible, the ability to understand the master plan is now possible.
Let’s start with the archetype of Jewish tragedy, the background for the seminal event of our history, the Exodus. What sin did the Jewish people commit to deserve slavery in Egypt? Even Moses demands of G‑d, “Why have You done evil to this people?” The Midrash describes Moses’ complaint in poignant terms:
“I took the Book of Genesis. I read it. I saw the deeds of the generation of the Deluge, and how they were judged. This was justice. I saw the generation that built the Tower of Babel, and the Sodomites, and how they were judged. This was justice. But this nation, what have they done to be oppressed more than any generation before them?”
When Moses arrived on the scene in Egypt, did he say to the people, “You are being punished for your sins. Repent and you will be redeemed!”? No—first he risked his own life to redeem them by confronting Pharaoh, and risked even more by challenging G‑d; he put up with all their kvetching for forty years and only then, in his last days, finally tells them off. But nowhere do we see him justifying G‑d for their enslavement.
In our Yom Kippur prayers we describe the ten great sages who were tortured to death by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago. The Talmud paints a picture of G‑d revealing to Moses every generation and its teachers. Moses sees the greatness of Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues. Then he sees how Rabbi Akiva screams “Shema Yisrael” as the Romans flay him alive with metal combs. Moses protests, “This is Torah and this is its reward?!”G‑d’s retort? “Quiet! This is what I have decided.”
Obviously, if there were sins that could explain the punishment, G‑d would not have withheld that explanation from Moses. Certainly G‑d has reasons for all that He does. But not necessarily reasons that we can understand or swallow.
It’s true that we say in our prayers, “Because of our sins we were exiled from our land.” It’s also true that the Torah and the prophets include calamities that come (or are threatened to come) as Divine retribution, and that Maimonides exhorts us that when tragedy strikes we should search our deeds and repent our failings.
But many centuries before political correctness, the sages of Israel insisted that something much deeper than punishment is going on here. Time and again, they reiterate that not everything can be explained under the narrow lens of reward and retribution.
Certainly there is justice in the world—a Higher Power that rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked (indeed, this is one of the 13 fundamental principles of Judaism). And there are many instances throughout the era of the judges and the kings where prophets told the Jews clearly, “Because of all your sins, these things have come upon you!” And certainly, it is a good idea to repent when bad things befall you.
But to stand up and pronounce judgment on someone else—and especially to say that I know G‑d’s will and G‑d’s mind, and I know that this happened because of this, or that if you people continue this way such-and-such will, G‑d forbid, befall you—that’s something only a prophet can do. And even then, only as part of an explicit mission from Above.
In fact, the sages tell us, even Isaiah was punished when he said to G‑d, “I live among a people whose lips are impure.” Here the sages describe G‑d’s response:
“Isaiah, you are permitted to say ‘I am a man of impure lips.’ But when you say, ‘I live among a people of impure lips’—that I will not tolerate!”
And so, immediately an angel came with a coal and burnt his lips. G‑d said, “Burn the lips of this person who speaks accusations against My children!”
I had the same question. But slowly the perspective moved. I suddenly realized I matter. We matter. Jews matter. If G-d hated us, we would maybe be sidelined, surely not picked on. While I am down some days, it is not like it ever used to be. I am not looking to act like a gentile. Nor am I any longer interested in emulating their way of life and their ‘outlets’ a. I and you are rather facing a hard reality that we are different. We are unique. And G-d wants something from us. It is our prayer in deed and thought that the current unity and attention to our identity and actions is what our creator wanted. And we pray further that we will feel his abindant love with the turning of darkness to lihgt. Of losses to wins. And death to life. Both physical and spiritual.
This hatred is not new at all; just a continuance of Yishmael’s hatred of Yitzchok. Hashem has a plan which will be revealed. The words of teffilah and tehillim are coming to life before our eyes. Daven with your whole heart and neshama that we will be deserving of a good end to this horror. Cry out to Him in your pain like we did in Mitzrayim. Nothing else will help, not all the munitions, bullets, iron domes, etc. Biden et al are just tools. The UN doesn’t matter, rallies on either side don’t matter, what CNN and their lying garbage reporters say doesn’t matter; only OUR cries and teshuva matter. Even though it doesn’t feel right now that Hashem loves us, the fact that we are still in existence proves otherwise. Stay strong!!
To the OP – you are right, it isn’t easy. It’s easy to have emunah and bitachon when things are going well. It’s times like these that show the real faith. Remember, we say “l’hagid baboker chasdechah, ve’emunascha balailos.”
I heard from R’ Shmuel Brazil that if we want to be able to properly celebrate the chasdei Hashem, we need to keep the emunah in the dark times.
Look back at Purim – the story took place over a number of years. When we read the Megillah, we see that the salvation was in place even before the real trouble started. Hashem never abandons us. Even though we can’t see it now, the salvation is already in place for the current situation.There will be darkeness in the world until moshiach comes. We can counter it by being the light. Stop following the news for a few days, and find a way to help people. I’ve seen so much good happening right now among Jews helping each other, supply drives, fundraisers, praying for others, community rallies, comforting each other, doing new mitzvot. Find a way to help others it will chase out the darkness.
As children of Hashem who strayed and get comfortable and perhaps only pay lip service to our connection with HIM, we sometimes need a wake up call to come back. Although it is hard to see in middle of this tragedy, ultimately it is for our benefit and put of pure love. If we don’t have a connection with Hashem our father we will be miserable in this world and the next. Therefore wr need a shaking up to put us back into the right path and connect to Hashem
Name one of our enemies that have lived to this day.
They are all forgotten but we remain.
They are many and we are few.
May our new adversaries be forgotten, and may we continue.
I did not expect my story to be censored. Maybe it’s because ywn completely overlooked it when it happened, even though it had fairly significant coverage from mainstream Israeli news sites
CHeck out Rabbi Doniel Katz on Coach Menachem Bernfeld
It’s interesting that you are asking this question now.
There is no end to the suffering in this world. I see families where one person died of a heart attack, another had cancer and other has major emotional issues. I see families where one parent died young and less than a year later, the other parent died in a freak accident. I see families who suffer with poverty and with debilitating medical conditions.
We are not here for this world. The closer you are to God, the more you realize that this world cannot be the purpose of creation. The more you tune in, the more you realize that you have a soul and that this world is just a mirage.
I learned (I don’t have a source so please verify with rabbis you trust) that our souls agreed to be in the body that we were given. When we were with God and had perfect clarity as to what we needed to accomplish, we agreed to our life. Now we are on Earth and we are clouded by physicality. The seeming paradox is that we have a spiritual mission but we aren’t in a spiritual reality that would allow us to clearly recognize how to achieve it.
I think the real question is, “why would God create a being that is so compromised by his human understanding of reality, and not a being that can intensely sense spirituality?” That is a similar question to what the Angels asked when they told God that He would’ve been better off not creating humans with our desires for physicality.
God doesn’t want us to know the answer to this question. If we knew the answer then this world wouldn’t be what it is. God created the world and He created the rules. Our choice is only how we deal with the reality that we were given.
I struggle with what the point was in all the pogroms for thousands of years if none of them brought Mashiach. If we needed thousands of years of perfection after all the exiles and persecution then it seems that it didn’t bring us to where we needed to get to as a result.
Which leads me to my final point. Do you remember that when Israel was accused of bombing the hospital, Israel announced that they MAY release proof that they didn’t do it? They ultimately released a phone recording of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. I believe that the reason they were hesitant to release that proof is because they didn’t want the other side to know how deeply they are entrenched in their systems. I’m sure that by revealing those conversations, they knew that those groups would make changes to their methods of communication which was a tremendous risk.
If an army is hesitant to reveal its intel then how much more so God, who is the master plan of the entire universe. So many people have opinions about what the army should or shouldn’t do. We know nothing-nothing-nothing about what information the army has, so whom are we to have an opinion. How much more so God?
So beautiful, thank you for the chizuk.
All of these comments are so powerful and reinforcing of our emunah in these dark times. Its also so rare to share a thread where ALL are coming to the same conclusion from somewhat different directions.
The attacks have definitely brought yidden together.
If it hasn’t been clear, I’ve not been interested in getting involved in controversial topics since it’s happened.
I’m not one to jump at current events and assume things, but I have a strong feeling that the geulah is coming soon.
I wonder what the Jews in פרס ומדי would’ve done if the CR was around back then 🤔
I have tried again to post my comment. I will just say that there is absolutely no reason to censor this, other than 100% purely unadulterated selfish agendas on ywn’s part. It’s actually quite comically silly, but also sickening. Just because ywn failed to cover the hate crime and murder of an 18 year old Jewish immigrant
I am not a news moderator. Your accusations make no sense. You take no consideration to verification, presentation, and non news values. Sorry you find it funny.
I have responded rather harshly to the moderator because of his extremely foolish response, so I doubt it will be shown here.
Everyone should google ‘murder of Yoel kiryat shmona’ and you’ll see endless articles from all the mainstream Israeli publications
Here are several ideas to consider:
1. Significant difficulties and challenges facilitate one’s ability to fully turn towards Hashem. When pushed to the wall with no where else to turn comes an opportunity. Ultimately, if we take that opportunity, we are rewarded and what seemed bad is in essence very good for us. Turning to Hashem includes both the recognition there is absolutely “No one but Him”, as well as the turning to Him in Tefillah.
At an Agudah convention years ago there was a Q&A session where someone asked why Hashem brought the Holocaust.
2. One Gadol (I don’t recall the names) answered that before the holocaust the enlightenment movement (and reform in America) were raging across the Jewish communities. The holocaust was therefore not only a punishment, but it helped facilitate the rebuild of the (frum) Jewish people across the world. (To an extent anyone from that generation would find unbelievable).
Another Gadol did not like that answer and said something to argue with the first Gadol. However, what he said is also a great answer to the OPs question.
3. He started going through each of the stories of the 10 sages killed by the Romans, one story at a time until he finished all ten. Then he asked “why were these ten sages who lived over 100s of years killed? Because the brothers sold Yosef.
Ten sages who lived over a period of 100s of years thousands of years after the sale of Yosef Hatzadik were killed as a kapparah.”
To assume we can know why something has happened would be foolish on our part, even if the reason seems obvious. We are not above time like Hashem, and there is a larger picture we cannot see.
This can be understood even without getting into the more complicated gilgulim component.
The UN general secretary said these events “did not happen in vacuum”. Those words are a very accurate portrayal of what’s going on (obviously not in the way he intended it). Events do not happen in a vacuum.The first two points mentioned are very similar.
I listed them both because I think there may be a very important distinction (although I am not sure this is true). In the first, we have an opportunity to turn to Hashem through bechira due to difficulties. In the second, it could be Hashem directing the world, causing a rebirth of klal Yisroel, that may be happening without our bechira- of course for good.May the geulah come soon.
Cause Hashem said that IN EVERY GENERATION other nations will rise up and fight against the Jewish Nation. And as we all honestly know the truth that the nation of eisav rose before the nation of Yishmael set etc….. there will never be a generation with no nation at all fighting against klal yisroel and this is what Hashem said already thousands of years ago when the Torah was written……
When all of klal yisroel gathers together as one loving nation on all levels from frum to frei to reform and chassidish etc…. and we Hashem our love for one another no matter what kind of Yid each person is then we will be able to show Hashem that finally finally the Sinas chinam in klal yisroel has completely been removed from the entire nation and we are ready and deserving of the coming of Mashiach already bkarov.
“It seems clear to me that Hashem does not want our learning or our mitzvos. There is more Torah being learned worldwide than ever but still we are threatened…”
You succinctly verbalize a thought that many yidden must feel in these dark days and its difficult to find a simple rebuttal or intellectually satisfying explanation for something that cannot ever be “explained” other than by Emunah, Emunah, Emunah
It is the time before coming of Meshiach, akavta demashicha.
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